AI did not cost us the game tonight, and CB did not win our last two games.

C'mon folks. Let's pretend we're being objective and rational.

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If the defense sent one person to the line 28 freakin times..it just so happened that it's AI's man. I didn't get to watch the game, but it look slike AI didn't check his man and cuase everyone else to over pick up his slack defensively, but late. That MF shot 20 free throws. WTF!!

My only concern... and this is seriously my only concern in the long run, is I don't understand why Coach Curry didn't at least give Will Bynum a shot at Devin Harris when everybody else was getting torched by him.

Everything else I chalk up to guys still learning how to play real defense together as a team coming off of years of the Flip stuff, and first game with the superstar jitters.

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Bingo, you hit the nail on yhe head on this one Cloud. Will Bynum disrupts and causes a nightmare on defense. I also wondered about this.

didn't get to watch the game.... but the one post game comment i got was that it was stuckey not AI checking Harrison when they were both in the game. And currey left Stuckey on him even though he was getting torched.

All the comments are on why we should have changed to this person or that person to play defense.....

Step back and think big picture.... were getting ready for the playoffs not to win game 5 of 82 on a dark night in november... If Currey wanted to win the game last night ala what we accused Flip of for the last 3 years he could have. He's thinking big picture, First with AA the game before.... AA didn't follow thru on his "role" so he sat, Now the future Starting PG is getting tested and having to deal under the stress of being burned...

There are going to be some nights we want to pull our hair out, but i think if we try to remember the big picture we'll all be alot happier with how this team is prepared for the playoffs.

Guarding the P&R is tough, especially when the guys aren't on the same page. Take away Boone's dunks and the game is probably tied. That will come, but it will take a while and more than one walk through.

Perhaps Prince came out thinking he was all that, but that second quarter with the bench thing may have been an aberration. He should never shoot 4-15. Plus Sheed, Herrmann, and Stuckey combined to shoot 29%. A little more there and Harris' big night wouldn't have mattered.

Curry kind of lost control of the rotations and seemed to be floundering some. Well, he is a rookie coach.

NJ got hot, played hard in the second half, and the Pistons looked like a team who lost their floor leader. In football everyone says the biggest improvement in team play comes between the first and second game of the season. Hopefully that will work here too with a practice today and a shootaround tomorrow.

didn't get to watch the game.... but the one post game comment i got was that it was stuckey not AI checking Harrison when they were both in the game. And currey left Stuckey on him even though he was getting torched.

All the comments are on why we should have changed to this person or that person to play defense.....

Step back and think big picture.... were getting ready for the playoffs not to win game 5 of 82 on a dark night in november... If Currey wanted to win the game last night ala what we accused Flip of for the last 3 years he could have. He's thinking big picture, First with AA the game before.... AA didn't follow thru on his "role" so he sat, Now the future Starting PG is getting tested and having to deal under the stress of being burned...

There are going to be some nights we want to pull our hair out, but i think if we try to remember the big picture we'll all be alot happier with how this team is prepared for the playoffs.

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very good. AI is here til the end of POs but Stuckey - "pistons for lifetime", so he needs to learn the burden of responsibility and leadership.

I did not see the game, but it sounds like Iverson played pretty well while the others did not. It will take a while for this bunch to learn how to play with a superstar. They're not used to it. This franchise is not used to it.

That being said, Iverson has only made it to the Finals once in his 11-year career. I sometimes wonder why that is. Is it because the teams he has played on have had poor supporting casts? Is it because he has not made his teammates better as Jordan did? Is it both? There should be no excuses on this team.

I say the Pistons will struggle a little over the next 20 games or so, but still have a decent winning percentage. Barring injuries, they'll turn it on in the second half of the season and make a serious run at the ECF.

I liked Billups, too, but he wasn't THE ANSWER. Not any more anyway. People who whined about this team not breaking up the core should be ecstatic that Iverson is here and be patient in the meantime.

Guarding the P&R is tough, especially when the guys aren't on the same page. Take away Boone's dunks and the game is probably tied. That will come, but it will take a while and more than one walk through.

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The great thing about this is that it is correctable. This is something they can improve on all season long.

Watching AI play on our Pistons team was like watching art. It will take 20 games or so for the team to get in tune with his style. The rest of the starting cast need to stop standing around and wake up out there because in a blink of a eye the ball may come to them from AI. So his teammates need to be paying attention to where AI is at all times when he has the ball in his hands. Last night we saw a lot of missed open looks from AI passes. Hopefully this will not be the norm.

didn't get to watch the game.... but the one post game comment i got was that it was stuckey not AI checking Harrison when they were both in the game. And currey left Stuckey on him even though he was getting torched.

All the comments are on why we should have changed to this person or that person to play defense.....

Step back and think big picture.... were getting ready for the playoffs not to win game 5 of 82 on a dark night in november... If Currey wanted to win the game last night ala what we accused Flip of for the last 3 years he could have. He's thinking big picture, First with AA the game before.... AA didn't follow thru on his "role" so he sat, Now the future Starting PG is getting tested and having to deal under the stress of being burned...

There are going to be some nights we want to pull our hair out, but i think if we try to remember the big picture we'll all be alot happier with how this team is prepared for the playoffs.

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I agree. If Curry really had to win this game Kwame Brown would not have been on the floor with 4 minutes left. He would have went with all of his starters from the 8 minute mark until the game was over. Curry was experimenting.

Besides the whole, to me very obvious, "give it some time" defense (how many hundreds of games has Rip played alongside Chauncey? -- that creates unconscious physical and mental habits that are going to take time to reshape), there is this:

how many times has Chauncey been trashed on this board because of his inability to defend quick point guards?

I agree. If Curry really had to win this game Kwame Brown would not have been on the floor with 4 minutes left. He would have went with all of his starters from the 8 minute mark until the game was over. Curry was experimenting.

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Am I the only one checking out the scorers table to see who's coming back into the game whenever DET's bench goes 2-3 possessions without scoring? I think this is my equivalent of Flip's twitch.

I just don't get this at all. Chauncey had a hand in so many plays when down the stretch. This leads me to a thought of a new thread I am getting ready to start.

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I said 1st quarter not down the stretch. He looked a lot better in the second half and admitted after the game that the altitude got to him. He looked like he took a dump in his shorts early on. He also looks a lot thinner in DEN's uni.

Watching AI play on our Pistons team was like watching art. It will take 20 games or so for the team to get in tune with his style. The rest of the starting cast need to stop standing around and wake up out there because in a blink of a eye the ball may come to them from AI. So his teammates need to be paying attention to where AI is at all times when he has the ball in his hands. Last night we saw a lot of missed open looks from AI passes. Hopefully this will not be the norm.

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You mean they were surprised when their point guard actually passed them the ball at the exact right time?